Australian Gamers: You Have 17 Hours To Pre-Order The Witcher 2...

… At the reasonable, original price of $42.27. According to the Good Old Games Facebook page, on Friday, May 6 at 1500 GMT, GOG.com will have to increase the price to $62.99 for licensing reasons.

“To all Australian gamers,” reads the statement. “You have 17 hours to preorder The Witcher 2 on GOG.com for the original price of $42.27 AUD! On Friday, May 6 at 1500 GMT, due to licensing reasons we’re going to adjust the price for Australian market and charge $62.99 AUD for the preorder and $69.99 AUD for the full price. The preorder on GOG.com isn’t forcing you to pay for the game instantly.”

There has been massive speculation as to the reasons why The Witcher 2 has been removed from Steam, with speculation ranging from classification issues to a retail induced price increase. It turns out that the game has been modified for release in Australia, but apparently that wasn’t the reason for the removal. It could be that licensing issues are to blame, and that the game will also be updated on Steam soon at a similar price.

It’s also important to note that the version of The Witcher 2 on Good Old Games will be the slightly modified version.

We have to give major kudos to Good Old Games for being so open about the process, and giving Australian gamers the chance to purchase the game at a reasonable price. Especially considering that the Good Old Games service is owned by the very same company who develops the Witcher series.

So folks, if you’re planning to pick up The Witcher 2, might as well do in the next 17…wait make that 16 hours.

From FB comments by GOG: "yes, the game for Australian market (and only for this market) will be slightly edited to fit the MA15+ rating. But the change is minor and won't affect the gameplay, nor the story."

I'm a bit cranky at all the people cranky at GOG. They're doing what they can but they have to abide by the laws of our country, neither the censorship or the pricing is their fault and the fact they're warning us about the price increase at cost to themselves is admirable. I don't have a computer that can run The Witcher 2 (and by the time I do I'll be able to buy it for under $20 like I did with The Witcher) but I'm tempted to buy some other games from them today because they're being so great about the whole thing.

While I agree with you, Strange, with regards to the censorship, I would like to disagree with regards to the price.

Though it is admirable, and beneficial to us consumers to admit the increase, CDProjekt own both the license for the game and the digital distribution network it's being released on. As such, it is their responsibility to admit why the price has increased. To say it's NamcoBandai's fault may well be correct, but why they are allowed to do this on CDProjekt's own network is something I do not understand. And in the absence of a real explanation beyond "Licensing reasons", I feel like they're trying to exploit both me, and the majority of Australian consumers.

GoG have said on their own facebook page that although the Aussie version is censored that within 24 hours they expect a mod to be out to de-censor the game like L4D2. I would not be suprised if they were the ones that "accidently" leak the mod because they are such great devs.

I agree with you, Shane. R18 is something that has a lot of momentum behind it, and we're really just waiting for the Government to get into gear.

However, that isn't the issue worth commenting on in this thread. That they're jacking up the price is less ethical (and more important!) than the censorship, because the latter is government mandated. The former is greed on someone's part, and abiding it is foolish on our part, because it'll continue forever.

There shouldn't be ANY kind of forced ratings. Sure the R18+ voices have been heard, but what then? What happens to games that are deemed to bad for R18+? Why should there be any form of censorship pushed onto adults?

I totally agree that there shouldn't be. That's what the X18+ (See ACT/QLD film classification acts) or even a theoretical 21+ rating (AO21+ in the ESRB system) would be for, if they applied to all media and/or existed. However, I'll settle for 18+ for now. We'll have this debate in 5-10 years, about including sex in games as being fine, but let's settle the violence issue first, yeah? One at a time... or the conservatives' heads'll explode :P

Our voices have been heard for a LONG time, back when L4D2 was getting the chop.
Discussions for an R18+ were in the works both before and after Atkinson was in office, and still nothing has been done.

Licensing issues? What the hell is this?! CDProjekt run Good Old Games. They make Witcher 2. THEY OWN THE LICENSE. If they've chosen to have the local release be done through a company which jacks up the price, then it's still on their heads, and it's still THEIR FAULT.

Why should I help fund a company that accepts and advocates discrimination based on arbitrary geography?

Greed is a good summation. Short term greed when you get down to it. It pushes some in to piracy, some to wait until it is a bargain price, some to import (although the pain of this is mainly limited to Australian retailers). It is building up animosity and hurting certain sections in the chain of getting games to gamers already and will continue to do so.

You see similar things in other areas. I'm in the process of getting all my girlfrieds snowboarding gear. Was down at the local snow gear shop and they will be closing up in a couple of months due to a massive drop in sales over the last couple of years due to online sales. You can see why. Boots I was looking at for her were AU$500 RRP. Look online and they are US$250 RRP and easily found on sale for less than US$200. Just like gaming publishers, most brands have said no shiping out of US/Canada so you have to find ways to get around it. Still likely to save 50% incl. shipping.

People that think this is ok need to realise that the more this kind of crap is allowed the more publishers will take advantage of it. If GoG had one iota of guts they would be publicly announcing that they will happily sell the uncensored game to Australians, instead they are bending over backwards to make sure the government can continue imposing their moral guidelines and crazy censorship regime on us. It's simple really, if you sit here and allow this to happen your part of the problem.

Then they're already vulnerable to litigation by the Australian Government, which may result in fines, bans, or theoretically, even jail sentences. It's unlikely that that will happen due to the low profile of the game (taking into account its age and lack of popularity and quality, despite notoriety). However, Witcher 2 is a new, big, shiny release, and could easily be championed by the ACL/etc as a piece of media which corrupts the youth. The Government pays attention to their financiers/lobbyists, and they'd be more likely to take action.

I say more likely, but I think it'd still be an unlikely event, so this is just CDProjekt covering themselves against legal damages and a reputation hit for flouting a sovereign nation's laws.

I really don't think that's the case. Surely it's the obligation of the purchaser to ensure that the item they're buying is not illegal in their jurisdiction. The AU powers that be have no authority over a Polish site. What's more, it's not illegal to purchase an RC title off-shore or to import such a title, as far as I'm aware. The penalty is for commercial sales of such titles within the country.

As for who the responsibility lies with, I'm really not sure. But I'd like to know! If anyone here knows the specifics of the act in practise or can quote any legal precedents, I'd love to hear from you!

The Australian dollar is doing better than the US dollar at the moment. By saying that they're going to increase our price to AU$70, at the moment that's US$75! Americans will be charged US$50 post release. So it's actually a 150% price increase. How can anyone justify us paying 150% more for a download?!

Obviously the Australian publisher has (in typical fashion) gone "We'll distribute the game in Australia, but we plan to price gouge the Aussies big time, and we won't distribute the game unless you agree to not undercut us on your service." It sucks that they can get away with that. Shame on CDProjekt for giving in.

Its cost now... US$45 from US steam or US$67 for AUS steam, and given that the company I work for routes all internet traffic via the US it’s kind of easy to buy from the US steam store. Plus if it’s the uncensored version, works for me!

I had (badly) written an angry rant out, but I think I'll just shorten it to "regional pricing is incredibly infuriating and insulting".
Especially when said "requirement" is GoG's own decision to make.

They've made less profit from me now, I'll now be waiting for it to go on sale below the pre-order price (I don't do pre-orders/Day 1 purchases any more, been burnt too many times). And I was really looking forward to playing it too.

Is there ANYTHING that we can do to stop this annoying trend? It's not like the ACCC gives a damn or even has the power to stop it from happening. I pre-ordered it last month from GOG so it doesn't affect me but still, damn this regional pricing crap to hell.

The price increase is not due to Australian tax, it's due to the developers and publisher deciding to price gouge the hard working Australians of planet Earth because it's seemingly acceptable to do so in the gaming world now.

It's disgusting.

Even though our dollar is at $1.10 roughly compared to the American dollar, the highest it has been in around 50 years, game developers are still charging us up to as twice as much for a digitally distributable game than what Americans are paying for a hard copy of the same game.

I'm amazed it isn't illegal and I have lost complete faith in GOG.com/CDPR after being explained why the price was raised. CDPR could have easily told the publisher they refused to price gouge the hard working Australian community but instead they signed contracts saying it was fine, then they gave into giving us a censored version by removing content instead of perhaps rewriting the same scene and just changing the context so it was not "Sex as a reward"

I will be importing every single video game I buy from now until the time that 90% of the publishers in the game industry decide to stop stealing money out of the pockets of Australians.

"CONTENT THAT WAS CHANGED: one single scene was changed. Geralt was able to chose if he wanted to get laid as reward for a quest. Australian classification board took offense and denied the MA15+, so CD Projeckt just took away the choice component and Geralt would automatically get laid. The board gave them a green light. No content got cut or censored in broader sense."

Yet Witcher1 remains M15+, and you always have a yes/no choice when it comes to sex in the game.
Derp derp government.